Alice Coltrane - Journey In Satchidananda (LP)

The death of John Coltrane left not only a musical, but a spiritual void among his many followers and admirers. By aligning himself with the searchers of the new generation, Coltrane legitimized their quest and set a daunting standard of excellence for those who experiment outside the mainstream of modern jazz. Among those searchers was young Alice McLeod of Detroit, a virtuoso on the vibraphone, piano, organ, and harp. Coltrane had always expressed a fondness for the harp, and while young McLeod never did bring that instrument into the context of Trane's working groups, she did bring her rolling, ecstatic style of piano to bear in the saxophonist's last quartets and quintets as Mrs. Alice Coltrane. Journey in Satchidananda, recorded in the fall of 1970, is a serene, composed meditation on the lessons of the 1960s, a mystical work of enduring sweetness and spiritual longing. The concluding cut, "Isis and Osiris" (recorded earlier that summer at the Village Gate), is a global village of